One couple—Charlotte and Dave Willner from the Bay Area—faced this same question before deciding to start a Facebook fundraiser to help immigrant and refugee families access legal services in Texas. Now, that campaign has collected more than $5 million, becoming the largest single fundraiser on Facebook in history.
According to the New York Times, the Willners were moved to action by an image of a baby crying as her mother was held at the border. They set a goal of raising $1,500 for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or Raices, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost legal defense to people from immigrant and refugee communities. Donations began pouring in and, at one point, NBC News reports that it was collecting $4,000 per minute.
“When we look at the faces of these children, we can’t help but see our own children’s faces,” Ms. Willner told The Mercury News, according to the Times.
Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of Raices, told the Times that the organization plans to hire and fund training for volunteer lawyers, who will join the ranks of the nonprofit’s 50 lawyers on staff. In addition to legal representation, the funds will also go toward paying bonds so that parents can be released from detention centers.
The organization ActBlue has also compiled a list of organizations here. Other ways of assisting including buying essentials, like baby wipes and soap, for children. Baby2Baby and KIND have set up a registry through Target here.
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ relationship is keeping me up at night. Are they dating? Are they just friends who hang out on yachts together with former Glee stars? Your guess is as good as mine, TBH.
I mean, the evidence seems to be there, right? It all started at the 2017 Met Gala, which the two attended together and Chopra wore the earth’s longest trench coat. They weren’t rumored to be dating then, but after the event everyone was low-key shipping them. They’re charming celebrities, after all. In 2018, the only joy we have left is shipping charming celebrities.
Anyway, things reportedly heated up Memorial Day Weekend 2018 while I was eating Chipotle and watching old episodes of America’s Next Top Model. Jonas and Chopra supposedly went on two dates together: a baseball game and a live-orchestra performance of Beauty and the Beast. They also hung out on that aforementioned yacht and posed for photos I haven’t stopped looking at for two straight weeks. You can read the full story of their maybe-relationship inception here. It’s hot. It’s juicy. It features a photo of Jonas wearing suspect one-strap suspenders.
Those suspenders make an appearance below, too, in this Very Serious Investigation I conducted of Jonas and Chopra’s Instagram activity. If the whole Garrett-from-The Bachelorette controversy taught us anything, it’s that a double-tap has serious implications. Chopra and Jonas have double-tapped each other on the ‘Gram no less than 10 times—so, obviously, that means an engagement is just around the corner. Kidding, but could you imagine? The royal wedding would be shook.
You’ll be shook, as well, once you realize how much Chopra and Jonas have publicly interacted on Instagram. Things started out simple, with a series of photo “likes.” Jonas is clearly the thirstiest of the two, because he’s double-tapped more than Chopra.
Behold, Jonas’ likes:
Loving the fact Instagram put Millie Bobby Brown’s “like” before Jonas’ here. Stranger Things‘ impact.
PHOTO: Instagram
Here for any thirst trap that involves a large-brimmed hat.
PHOTO: Instagram
A sweet Mother’s Day pic. I have nothing snarky to say.
PHOTO: Instagram
Missed opportunity: Jonas could’ve commented back “had me a blast.”
PHOTO: Instagram
Chopra really likes letting us know what season it is. A weather queen.
PHOTO: Instagram
Again with the weather: snow. Al Roker, who?
PHOTO: Instagram
And now onto Chopra’s taps. Most of them are from photos where Jonas just looks hot AF. Relatable.
The suspenders! But, also, the arms.
PHOTO: Instagram
Clearly, there’s a television out of frame playing Quantico in this shot.
PHOTO: Instagram
Hot people eating pizza! I feel so seen.
PHOTO: Instagram
Another sweet picture; no snark required.
PHOTO: Instagram
But let’s get to the good stuff, shall we? Chopra and Jonas’ comments to each other. There are only three of them, and they’re boring. I can’t stop re-reading them, naturally.
First, Chopra commented on a photo of Jonas and DJ Mustard with the double-heart and fire emojis.
PHOTO: Instagram
Fast-forward to this past weekend, when Jonas wrote “That smile” underneath a pic of Chopra and her friends laughing and eating In-N-Out Burger.
Side bar: Of course Chopra and her friends look like majestic swans when they eat burgers. Meanwhile, I’m over here with the same meal looking like:
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Just this past week, Chopra commented on this photo Jonas posted of himself and a koala:”Who is cuter? Lol,” she wrote. The answer is, obviously, the koala. Nick Jonas isn’t “cute.” He’s the flame emoji come to life.
As is his rumored relationship with Chopra. Seriously, if these two are actually a thing, the world will implode from the sheer hotness of it. Instagram has the receipts, but what is the truth? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Oprah Winfrey is a media titan, philanthropist, businesswoman, fashion icon, actress, and all-around American treasure — and a new museum exhibition is now giving her the credit she deserves.
“What’s interesting is the same way America thought about Walter Cronkite — you could trust Walter Cronkite and his opinion — they trust Oprah,” museum director Lonnie G. Bunch III told the Washington Post. “An African American woman becomes the person America turns to.”
The exhibition features a series of interview segments, video clips, photographs and journals that chronicle Winfrey’s life and career. The first section focuses on the ways in which the cultural shifts of the 1950s and ’60s shaped and informed Winfrey’s worldview—as the museum’s website puts it, Winfrey is “a daughter of the civil rights generation whose phenomenal story of success illuminates the struggles and achievements of African American women throughout history.”
The second part includes artifacts and ephemera from Harpo Studios in Chicago, where Winfrey filmed “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The exhibition explores how Winfrey used the show to raise conversations around race, equality and gender through her interviews, improvement segments, and popular book club discussions.
The final part of the exhibition highlights her role as a “cultural influencer and tastemaker.” In addition to appearing in films like The Butler and A Wrinkle In Time as an actress, Winfrey has produced award-winning films like Beloved and the Ava DuVernay-directed feature Selma. She’s also helped launched the careers of a number of authors through her book club and has promoted arts and culture through her philanthropy and on The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
While Winfrey donated $21 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum told the Washington Post that her role as a benefactor did not influence the show. Instead, they explained that the exhibition was put together by museum scholars and curators Rhea L. Combs and Kathleen Kendrick, who worked hard to balance Winfrey’s personal story and success.
“We’re providing a context for understanding not only who she is, but how she became a global figure, and how she is connected to broader stories and themes,” Kendrick said.
Garrett may not have wowed us on Monday night’s premiere of The Bachelorette (that distinction went to Jordan), but he did charm Becca Kufrin enough to walk way with the first impression rose. As of Tuesday, however, it appears as though Becca might have spoken too soon. Multiple news outlets are now reporting that Garrett (full name Garrett Yrigoyen) appears to have a history of liking racist, sexist, transphobic, xenophobic, and otherwise bigoted posts on Instagram.
According to InStyle, Yrigoyen’s likes were first screenshotted by Instagram account @iamwatchingyuuo, which appears to have since been deactivated. He also appears to have deleted the Instagram account from which he liked the posts in question, @garrett_yrigs12, and replaced it with a new one, @garrett.yrigoyen. But it looks like he wasn’t fast enough: On May 24, Bachelor Season 15’s Ashley Spivey tweeted out screenshots of the alleged likes. Meanwhile, Refinery29 and HuffPost both confirmed that the likes in question were real.
“Can we do a better job of social media deep dives on the dudes that try out for #thebachelorette – FYI douchebags we can see your likes [sic]…After Lee’s problematic @$$, [sic] I truly thought this would be something we paid better attention to,” Spivey tweeted, referring to the racist tweets of Bachelorette Season 13’s Lee Garrett. “A contestant on this season of #thebachelorette liked all of these posts on Instagram and I’m thinking it will be very hard to pull for the type of person likes [sic] any of this.”
The posts in question include those that mock plus-size leftist women, trans people, boys who wear makeup, target Colin Kaepernick’s #BendTheKnee protest, joke about soldiers throwing immigrant children over Donald Trump’s “wall,” and spread a (debunked) conspiracy theory about Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor David Hogg being a “crisis actor,” among others.
While some fans have responded to the news of Yrigoyen’s likes with dismay (especially since he’s the rumored frontrunner), others dismissed criticism of his likes as being “anti-conservative.”
Months of anticipation culminated with the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Windsor on Saturday. There was much discussion regarding whether Meghan, an American-born biracial actress, would honor her African-American heritage during the festivities. It was impossible to escape conversations about race and the royal family as Prince Harry and Meghan’s marriage signaled a new day for the monarchy.
Speculation would prove futile: The couple ensured the introduction of Blackness into the royal family would not go unnoticed. Participating in the wedding ceremony were Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the first Black woman to hold the office of Chaplain to the Queen; Bishop Anba Angaelos, the Egyptian-born first Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London; and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the first Black cellist to win BBC’s Young Musician of the Year. A gospel choir sang “Stand By Me” and ended the ceremony with a medley of “This Little Light of Mine” and the Black church benedictory staple “Amen.”
Yet, one of the most poignant moments came during the wedding homily. When it was announced that the Most Right Rev. Bishop Michael Curry, presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, would deliver the sermon, sheer joy was expressed by members of my church and those of us who love him. Bishop Curry began his ministry in my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and has been a powerful presence in my life. I am among many he has mentored and guided as we navigate finding our voices and place in the fight for justice. He continues to push one of the nation’s oldest and largest denominations to be even more progressive on issues such as gender equity in leadership, full LGBTQ inclusion, prison reform, and gun control. A strong proponent of human rights and social justice, he continues to be one of the leading progressive theological voices in America.
For a little more than 13 minutes, Bishop Curry reminded those in St. George’s Chapel and around the world of the radical and transformative power of love. He movingly stated that “there is power in love,” and “our lives are meant to live in that love.” One day after school shootings in the American cities of Santa Fe, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia—and days after the killing of many Palestinian protesters in Gaza—the world’s lack of love is palpable. Before one of the world’s great superpowers (two if you count how many Americans watched alongside Brits), Bishop Curry prophetically spoke to the truth that justice is rooted in love. When he reminded us of Jesus’s words, we were challenged to acknowledge that we cannot fully celebrate the love between Meghan and Prince Harry if we cannot commit to loving our neighbors as ourselves.
But this is what Bishop Curry does: He lovingly challenges us to remember our interdependence and responsibility to create just worlds that will enable us, as he said, to “treat each other like we are actually family.”
In a moment where Bishop Curry represented the boldness of progressive theology, he also brought the best of the Black preaching tradition. Though Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, he often recalls attending Baptist services with his grandparents as a child. It was in those spaces where Bishop Curry learned the mechanics of Black preaching. While many in attendance and watching might have found it unorthodox, his cadence and delivery was reminiscent of what most Black people experience every Sunday morning. In fact, had Bishop Curry preached that same sermon the next day in a Black church with a Hammond B3 organ, hands would be raised, shouts would fill the air, and more than a few would be in the aisles dancing. In short, he preached.
Black preaching is never without emotion: It leans into the depths of African Americans’ relationship with a God who has sustained and continues to sustain them throughout turbulent social times. Black faith is rooted in the belief that love ultimately triumphs over all forms of hatred, and when African American preachers stand within that trajectory, they shine. In fact, I would argue that it is Bishop Curry’s roots in the Black church that ground his social justice ministry—much like someone else we know.
Bishop Curry stands in the lineage of Black prophetic preachers like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bookending his homily with Dr. King’s words, Bishop Curry reminded us that Black preachers have always challenged the world to be better. In December 1964, in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Dr. King himself preached that a love for humanity is one of “the three dimensions of a complete life.” In the 50th year since his assassination, the world has sought to remember and honor Dr. King. Much has included a revisionist history of America’s relationship with him. While Dr. King remained steadfast in his belief that love could change the world, it was not well received and, ultimately, led to his death.
Yet Bishop Curry reminded that the revolutionary call for us to love remains clear. And in his invocation of Black America’s ancestors, those who were enslaved in the antebellum South, he reminded us that this call to love, to confront bigotry and hatred, has always come most clearly from those whose voices are often stifled and silenced by many of the empirical powers represented in that sanctuary.
The excitement of celebrating the love between the royal couple is magnified by the delight in what it means for a revolution in the British monarchy and, quite possibly, the world. The wedding that introduced the world to the first Black Duchess of Sussex also prominently reminded that same world of the healing and prophetic power that comes from lifting Black voices. It was an intentional centering that the royal family—and all who witnessed this beautiful day—will not soon forget.
To many, Mother’s Day means flowers and brunch—but its origins are much more radical than a Hallmark card can handle. The holiday has a deep history of activism and political protests, which feels worth revisiting now, in 2018. After all, this is a year in which an increasing number of mothers were inspired to run for office so they can make a difference, the Women’s March celebrated its anniversary with protests across the country, and a female politician made history by becoming the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth. Motherhood is a powerful unifying force, something the founders of Mother’s Day certainly recognized.
The holiday’s creation is generally attributed to a woman named Anna Jarvis, who campaigned Congress through many letters and moving speeches to make it an officially recognized day. In 1914, Jarvis got her wish when Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation that declared the second Sunday in May a “a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”
PHOTO: Bettmann
Mother’s Day Founder Anna Jarvis
In her book Memorializing Motherhood, author Katharine Antolini describes Jarvis as a devoted daughter, who wanted the day to serve as an observance of the “primary source of a home’s security and love.” But as the years passed, according to Antolini, Jarvis came to deeply resent how the card and candy companies had co-opted the holiday. Jarvis also disliked it when women’s activist groups, like the Suffragettes, used the day to make political statements.
Ironically, though, her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, was an activist herself and known as a leader in her community. Beginning in 1858, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, which helped educate struggling mothers in their area of West Virginia. According to Antolini, Anna was reluctant to discuss her mother’s activism and spent years publicly battling the meaning of the holiday she’d helped create.
But the use of “Mother’s Day” in America can be traced back even before Anna Jarvis’ campaign began. In 1870, poet and activist Julia Ward Howe wrote an appeal—known as the “Mother’s Day Proclamation”—for women to unite for peace. Two years later, she declared a “Mother’s Day for Peace” should be celebrated every June 2. Howe was calling for the end of state-supported violence, motivated by the recent devastation of the Civil War and Franco-Prussian War. For years, she organized events around the day.
PHOTO: Historical
Suffragette and Poet Julia Ward Howe
Though she came before Anna Jarvis (and her Mother’s Day for Peace arguably had more in common with the 1858 work clubs), Howe’s concept of a Mother’s Day dedicated to activism and anti-war efforts was largely eclipsed for many years. Today, though, it’s still referenced in activist circles, particularly on the east coast, many of whom continue to make Mother’s Day an important part of their yearly organizing efforts.
When anti-war group the Granny Peace Brigade (GPB) held their first Mother’s Day Rally in 2006, they handed out flyers printed with the words written by Ward over a hundred years ago:
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that ofwater or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questionsdecided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us,reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have beenable to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of onecountry will be too tender of those of another country to allow oursons to be trained to injure theirs.”
Phyllis Cunningham of GPB says, via email, that the grannies asked people who took their flyers to spread the message, “War is never a solution.” They continued the tradition annually, though they’re not having a Mother’s Day event this year due to several members being unable to participate.
Howe’s voice is also celebrated by CODEPINK, a grassroots organization that has been leading national events on Mother’s Day since the early 2000s. (CODEPINK has often paired with GPB for events.)
“Mother’s Day is a call to end war from Julia Ward Howe, for women to plan peace,” says CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans. “So from the beginning, all over the country, we’d do Mother’s Day events. In D.C., we do a giant camp out in front of the White House. We’ve had international guests, we’ve woven roses into the White House fence, we’ve been arrested. Mother’s Day is huge for us.”
Though the focus of their group is to end U.S. wars and militarism, CODEPINK partners with coalitions on other issues, like advising Parkland students in their fight against the NRA and supporting activists resisting attempts to end DACA. In recent years, women from Mothers Against Police Brutality and Black Lives Matter have come to speak on Mother’s Day, including Reverend Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by an officer on New Year’s Day in 2009.
Johnson wrote in a letter for CODEPINK in 2015: “We deserve to live in peace and we deserve justice for the crimes committed against our children. On a day when mothers are supposed to be honored and appreciated, let’s show some love for the moms who are hurting the most.”
CODEPINK’s plan for 2018 is a celebration of the new Poor People’s Campaign, an initiative led by Reverend William Barber, building on the work of Martin Luther King Jr., to challenge systemic racism, violence, and poverty. It’s important to Evans that CODEPINK focuses on issues like these on Mother’s Day because these are the things many mothers and their children struggle with everywhere. The commercialization of the holiday is frustrating for Evans, just like it was for Anna Jarvis, but for an entirely different reason: She thinks it’s an obvious attempt to distance people from political engagement.
“It was a call to end war, and it turned into commercialism,” she says. “That’s a distraction. A clear way to distract everyone from that fact that women and children pay the greatest price in war.”
Jarvis likely wouldn’t be happy with the efforts of organizers like Evans and Cunningham, or any of the women who have centered Howe’s declaration in their work on Mother’s Day. However, her mother might have appreciated the changes they’re demanding: safety, peace, and the opportunity to raise children in a world that wants to see them grow.
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